KickStarter Queen's Wish: The Conqueror - the Jeff Vogel Kickstarter

[Infinitron]

Huh, I just realized there are gameplay videos of this on YouTube since two weeks ago:

 

[mondblut]

That's going to be the best September 11 since 2001!

Spoiler

of course not, but I couldn't miss the opportunity

 

[Jimmious]

I felt the pain when I saw the effort to click a sideways door which is graphically represented from a thick LINE, because typical iso view was "banal" I guess...

 

[JarlFrank]

GS: You’re not putting it on the Epic Games Store?

JV: No
Well, you know, I’m not going to lie. If Epic walked up to us and offered us a gigantic bag of money so we didn’t have to worry about earnings for a couple of years, I’d take that deal. Every indie would take that deal. This business is terrifying. Everyone here is three bad days from going out of business. Of course everyone’s going to take the Epic money bag.
It’s just that I’m not good enough for it. Our games are too niche and too low-budget to get into that club. But you know, no hard feelings.

Goddamn, this is such a pure, distilled Vogel post.

"Being an indie dev is hard. Do you know how hard it is? It's really hard. I would totally take a big bag of money (and then not invest it into making my games more appealing because it wouldn't be worth it, anyway - did I mention how hard it is?) to make it less hard. But nobody is going to give me that big bag of money because I'm not good enough for that. I'm too niche. It's hard to be that niche. And I can't ever hope to progress past that niche because it would be too hard and I barely scrape by anyway. And no better art and a soundtrack wouldn't help because I don't care about those, trust me I know what's important in an RPG I've been doing this for 25 years. 25 hard years. Very hard years. Being a niche indie dev is hard. Please give me money."

 

[mindfields]

It's terrifying for him because his games are too expensive and they look like poo.

 

[JarlFrank]

Meanwhile three lads from Serbia:

 

[Contagium]

Still a day one purchase for me. Looks prestigious. At least he's delivering a game after getting a big bag of shekels from Kickstarter.

 

[mondblut]

"Being an indie dev is hard. Do you know how hard it is? It's really hard. I would totally take a big bag of money (and then not invest it into making my games more appealing because it wouldn't be worth it, anyway - did I mention how hard it is?) to make it less hard. But nobody is going to give me that big bag of money because I'm not good enough for that. I'm too niche. It's hard to be that niche. And I can't ever hope to progress past that niche because it would be too hard and I barely scrape by anyway. And no better art and a soundtrack wouldn't help because I don't care about those, trust me I know what's important in an RPG I've been doing this for 25 years. 25 hard years. Very hard years. Being a niche indie dev is hard. Please give me money."

Well, he is not terribly wrong. If investing 50k into muh better visuals would likely only result in 25k worth of extra sales, only an idiot would do that. His games are extremely niche and it is wise not to pretend they could ever be anything else.

 

[LESS T_T]

Out now.

 

[Abu Antar]

Isn't that a lot cheaper than his previous games?

I remember paying 25 $/€ for the first Avadon game.

 

[LESS T_T]

Isn't that a lot cheaper than his previous games?

I remember paying 25 $/€ for the first Avadon game.

I think it's the same $20 price with previous Avernum remake trilogy, nor sure about the first Avadon.

Just makes you think that this is cheaper than Kickstarter copy because of discount

 

[Modron]

Same price as Avadon 3 at release at least, crazy Avadon was released 8 years ago. Avadon was kind of a low point, 2 was a much better Spiderweb game and 3 almost as decent.

 

[Aemar]

The Dungeons & Autists Monster Manual. For I moment I thought creating this kind of content was the worst idea ever but then I remembered about his diehard fans and his successful Kickstarter campaign.

 

[HoboForEternity]

i still haven't my keys

 

[ERYFKRAD]

i still haven't my keys

Check under the door men.

 

[Elwro]

Just wanted to report that QW seems to run perfectly on Linux using Steam Play.

 

[Jimmious]

Just wanted to report that QW seems to run perfectly on Linux using Steam Play.

And how is it?

 

[Elwro]

I need to work now :-(

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

I've got nothing to say about this new game, but Nethergate: Resurrection was also released on GOG.
https://af.gog.com/game/nethergate_resurrection?as=1649904300

 

[Curratum]

I'm still amazed that his man has not moved past his 1996 art and production values for over two decades, but is still somehow putting out those horrible little things.

 

[Terra]

i still haven't my keys

Same, I'm sure Jeff is just honouring the long-standing tradition of kickstarter developers who believe that their backers deserve to get their keys after the product they backed has gone on sale to the rest of the public.

 

[Terra]

My key just arrived now via humble.

 

[Elwro]

 

[newtmonkey]

I put a few hours into it just now.

I disliked the graphics from the moment the first screens were released, and I still don't like them. I wouldn't go so far as to compare them with RPGMaker stuff, but the environments are much worse looking than the Avernum remakes and the Avadon games. I do, however, like the character sprites, which look like little figurines you'd use for a pen and paper game. I might be hallucinating, but I think both the sprites and portraits reflect the armor you're wearing.

I already like it a lot more than Avadon:
- You get handed three companions right away, but you can ignore (even delete) them and make your own party from the very beginning.
- So far there's not a lot of trash combat. There's actually not a lot of combat, period. A typical area will have a couple of small mobs and then a boss encounter. Leaving an area without clearing the boss encounter will reset any encounters you've beat.
- You don't regain HPs outside of battles like in Avadon. You need to heal up using potions or spells in between battles. The only way to restore ability points (early on) is to return to a fort you've liberated (you also gain a single ability point each time you kill an enemy).
- You have an actual world map you can explore outside of towns, etc., but there's also a quick travel option to visit places you've been.
- The fort building stuff seems pretty fun so far.

In some ways, though, it's been dumbed down even more than Avadon:
- You only gather equipment, treasure, etc. from chests. No more walking in a room and being able to pick up whatever is on the floor. This makes the game seem a lot like a JRPG.
- The ability tree is ridiculous, there's six abilities at most in each skill category (basically, fighter, mage, healer at this point). Each individual ability can only be assigned one or two points max. You can also respec abilities for free at any time. The game mentions that other skill categories open up as you conquer forts/towns, so it might get more interesting later.
- There are no classes, so every character can pretty much equip anything (martial equipment and magic equipment both require a single passive ability). Every character is basically a fighter, and the only difference is whether their abilities are martial or magical.
- No stats whatsoever. Everything seems to be based on your equipment only.

 

[HoboForEternity]

- You only gather equipment, treasure, etc. from chests. No more walking in a room and being able to pick up whatever is on the floor. This makes the game seem a lot like a JRPG.
- The ability tree is ridiculous, there's six abilities at most in each skill category (basically, fighter, mage, healer at this point). Each individual ability can only be assigned one or two points max. You can also respec abilities for free at any time. The game mentions that other skill categories open up as you conquer forts/towns, so it might get more interesting later.
- There are no classes, so every character can pretty much equip anything (martial equipment and magic equipment both require a single passive ability). Every character is basically a fighter, and the only difference is whether their abilities are martial or magical.
- No stats whatsoever. Everything seems to be based on your equipment only.

what the fuck!?

I just received the key and suddenly my hype just poof'd

I have defended this game and jeff for months, believing he saw trough his error with avadon, which is some aspect true, but what the fuck?

Looks like they just butchered character creation and progression altogether.